#11 - Crafting in a Small Space

I thought today we could tackle the subject matter that is also the name of this podcast … the craft room.  More specifically … small crafting spaces.  Because, let's be honest, as much as would all probably love one of those Pinterest worth, fully decked out and coordinated craft rooms, the reality for most of us is that we have a relatively small space to dedicate to craft.  Unless you have a spare bedroom,  home office or rumpus room going unused, chances are that you craft at a desk tucked into a corner, the dining table, a tray table, on the lounge or in a cupboard like me.  Working in a small space … let's face it … is limiting.  We may have to share our space with others. We might have to pack up after every single crafting session (when we'd much rather leave everything out until the project is done).  Maybe inquisitive mini people get into your supplies and use all of your stickers, unravel your yarn or create a "masterpiece"  on the layout, card or canvas you've been working on all day.  We are limited in how much we can keep on hand by the space we have available, and if you're renting, even more limitations are in place.  You can put up shelves or place hanging solutions on walls. So what can we do about this?  I say, we do what we do best … think creatively!

Today I want to share my top 10 tips for maximising your crafting space and small space efficiency.

ONE – Stack It

Baskets are very pretty, so if you're going for a Pinterest vibe, then baskets are great.  But they don't stack, and when you're short on space, that's a problem.  This is why I prefer tubs with lids that allow me to stack them, making the most of the space available.  I know that baskets look pretty filled with yarn, but every time I've tried this as a storage option it has been a disaster.  Non-yarn things find their way into baskets.  Some interesting things I've found in my yarn basket include a dead cockroach, a half eaten apple, a sticky lollypop, and most devastating  of all … the cat! None of these have been good for my yarn! I was lucky and had a couple of lovely lined baskets, but if you are storing yarn in a basket, chances are it may not be lined, and your lovely yarn can catch on the wicker or texture, which also doesn't keep it in good condition.  The other thing is … I'm a sporadic crocheter, so dust actually became a problem (it's quite difficult to dust yarn!). Lastly … I accumulated way too much yarn for baskets to be a viable storage solution … they were taking up way too much floor space, and the yarn was unprotected.  I had to find a solution that wasn't going to take up any extra floor space in my home.  I now store my Milford cotton yarn in an old suitcase under my bed (which was empty … now it serves a purpose).  I like it because I can slide it partially out, unzip it, retrieve the yarn I want, then slide it back in.  Too easy!  I store my other yarn in tub drawers that fit snugly in cube units. I used empty space that was already available, and easy to access, and made one inexpensive purchase.

I store my fabric in tubs, not because I'm against storing it on shelves, but because the shelves I use for my fabric are so deep that when I tried having it all folded nicely on display.  I couldn't reach what was at the back, and it was total chaos, and made it difficult to find what I needed quickly.  The fabric became wrinkled and I spent a lot more time ironing than I wanted to. Tubs were the solution.

I am also fond of small stacking tubs for my papercrafting supplies.  Scrapbooking and cardmaking has a LOT of tiny pieces, so I find tubs best to corall them by colour, and help me find things quickly.  I am definitely overdue for a craft cupboard cleaning session, and look forward to taking some time to restore order to the cupboards, so I waste less time looking for things behind other things.

Tubs don't have to be boring and functional.  I have some very nice tubs with lids that help them stack, with a nice basket weave texture on the outside.  They're available in all sorts of shapes, sizes and styles, so you should be able to find something that suits your supplies as well as your space.

TWO – Maximise your real estate

Stacking tubs with lids will absolutely do this for you, but there are other ways to take a small footprint, and go up.  For example, let's go back to my yarn storage.  After I outgrew the baskets, I switched to 50L tubs while I was working on a large number of projects for DMC.  I needed to store a lot of yarn in a small space, and the tubs were a great solution.  It only took up the floor space of one tub, but I was able to stack them 5 high in that space. The problem I faced here, though, was that I was constantly unstacking and opening tubs to find particular colours for specific projects, and it was becoming bothersome. I needed a better solution that would fit in the same floor space. I desperately wanted an IKEA kallax unit